A Day at the Zoo
by Trip Jennings
Expedition Granted Competitor

I went to the Portland Zoo today. I'm always amazed at the sheer size of elephants but I don't normally go to zoos because I can't stand to see the animals in cages and small enclosures. One of the elephants at the zoo (who I think was donated by Enron ) was orphaned at a young age in Asia and the rest were born there, so their origins (minus the Enron thing) aren't too shady, but with only three acres available to them they end up pacing back and forth all day. For an animal that can cover tens of miles in a day, that's a lot of pacing.

Sadly, at the rate elephants are being killed by poachers today, this could be the future of the few that survive. Sam Wasser of the UW Conservation Biology department estimates that elephants could be extinct in the wild by the year 2020, just one decade away. That's because China and the US are demanding ivory more than ever before, the Chinese for ivory ink stamps and Americans for handles of knives and guns.

Even with the international ivory trade banned, the price per kilo can exceed $800, sometimes even shooting up to $1,500 per kilo. In some cases, ivory is now worth more than drugs. Bad news for wild elephants.

Luckily, Sam Wasser is an elephant expert, having developed some of the most innovative tricks in combating poaching. What may be even more interesting though is that he's a poop expert.

Sam has developed a method for pinpointing where elephants were killed by analyzing DNA from confiscated ivory shipments all over the world by using elephant scat to create a DNA map of Africa. This means that he can pinpoint poaching hotspots before the herds are too depleted to become healthy again.

The only problem is that his DNA map is not complete. Some of the most challenging areas to sample DNA (elephant poop) are also the most difficult to access.

He figures the two best ways to help save elephants from extinction are first to finish his DNA map in order to pinpoint poaching hotspots, and second to create a groundswell of international awareness so that governments and policing agencies have the political will to stop the ivory trade where it starts.

My expedition to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a war-torn nation that found its way into my heart in 2008 when I paddled down the Congo River, aims to answer both of these problems. I'll head into the deep jungle with a crew of trusted friends to bring back two things, elephant DNA (a backpack of poop) and photo/video documentation of the elephant herds we encounter.

While picking up poop will be fun, the most exciting will likely be shooting footage and photos of elephants. Remote imaging specialist Joe Riis will be on the expedition shooting photos and helping us set up camera traps to catch the elephants up close. I'll be shooting video with my good friend Andy Maser and Kyle Dickman will be writing.

Together, we can help change the future of elephants and ensure that they life happy, healthy and wild lives, not just in zoos. Please vote for me!